Question: We read in SB Canto 4 chapter 9 that Lord Vishnu granted Dhruvaloka to Dhruva Maharaj which is eternal, but in the 10th chapter it is mentioned that Nanda and Sunanda came to take Dhruva Maharaj to Vaikunthaloka. So, did Dhruva maharaj also attain Vaikuntha? This is confusing to me. Could you please explain?
Answer by Romapada Swami: SB 4.9.20-21 purport, cited below, confirms that the Pole star is non-different from Vaikunthaloka.
Here is the chronology.
Dhruva Maharaj ruled the earth as its king for 36,000 years and then retired by handing over his kingdom to his son.
After Dhruva handed over the charge of the earth to his son, he left his kingdom, wife, children, and comfortable palace life and again went to the forest to perform the process of meditation on the form of the Lord that he had practiced in his childhood.
As he meditated upon Vishnu in a trance of devotional service, he developed symptoms of ecstasy in his body; tears flowed from his eyes, his heart melted, and there was shivering all over his body. In that devotional trance, he completely forgot his bodily existence and became liberated from material bondage.
As soon as the symptoms of liberation were manifest, Dhruva Maharaja saw a very beautiful airplane coming down from the sky.
Dhruva Maharaja saw in the airplane two associates of Lord Vishnu (Nanda and Sunanda) who possessed the same bodily features as Vishnu, with four hands and a blackish bodily luster. The two associates of Vishnu told Dhruva Maharaja, “This unique airplane has been sent by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because of your unalloyed devotional service in Krsna consciousness, you are quite ready to board this plane.”
After hearing the words of the associates of the Lord, Dhruva Maharaja offered his respectful obeisances to the sages in the forest and to the associates of Lord Vishnu and prepared himself in many ways before boarding the plane.
As Dhruva Maharaja was passing through space, he saw all the planets of the solar system, and he also saw all the demigods in their airplanes showering flowers upon him like rain. Dhruva Maharaja surpassed all the planetary systems and ultimately attained the Pole Star, which is an eternal spiritual planet where he now resides eternally.
We should be very clear, that Dhruva Maharaj’s planet, Dhruva Loka, is non-different than the Vaikuntha planet.
In SB 4.9.20-21, Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport “Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura comments in this connection that Dhruvaloka is one of the lokas like Svetadvipa, Mathura and Dvaraka. They are all eternal places in the kingdom of Godhead, which is described in the Bhagavad-gita (tad dhama paramam) and in the Vedas (om tad visnoh paramam padam sada pasyanti
surayah). The words parastat kalpa-vasinam, “transcendental to the planets inhabited after the dissolution,” refer to the Vaikuntha planets. In other words, Dhruva Maharaja’s promotion to the Vaikunthalokas was guaranteed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
